News tagged with "Nuclear"

Climate change is a potential threat to the welfare of mankind and its mitigation is becoming urgent. Nuclear energy, which provides one-fifth of U.S. electricity generation, is currently the leading utility-scale, carbon-free baseload power source in America. But it is expensive, controversial, and regulated in a way that poses challenges to technological innovation. So how does nuclear power fit into U.S. climate change mitigation goals going forward?

The Michigan Memorial Seed Funding Program allows U-M research groups to explore proposal development for projects related to the peaceful use of nuclear energy. A new round of funding is open, and applications are due on January 26.

Republican lawmakers yesterday needled witnesses on the nuances and intricacies of carbon accounting for biofuels -- models created to showcase how well the fuels performed as a tool for averting climate change.

ANN ARBOR—With new equipment that makes it the best in the world for quickly recreating the radiation damage sustained by materials inside nuclear reactors, the Michigan Ion Beam Laboratory marked its grand re-opening this week. The $3 million laboratory expansion added a third accelerator, which is crucial to accurately mimicking reactor damage.

When Tom Downar left West Point in 1974, the young graduate wasn’t interested in taking the easy path - at least not in terms of his engineering degree. Instead, the former military man decided to take on nuclear energy.

“I liked physics and engineering; nuclear was the best of both worlds and you get something done,” says Downar. “You produce electricity and do it in what we think what is an environmentally friendly way.”

At MIT, Downar earned an MS and a PhD in Nuclear Engineering during a time when the field was facing significant issues and public disapproval.

U.S. EPA’s National Fuel and Vehicle Emissions Laboratory – a big player in early Clean Air Act crackdowns on tailpipe pollution– is getting a makeover for the battle against global warming.

A five-year, $50 million overhaul is adding a hangar where big rigs and buses can be taken on treadmill rides at speeds of up to 90 mph, providing emissions data in a day instead of the month or more it takes now.

Projects that promise to power deep space missions, add new capabilities to neutron research, and improve cancer diagnostics and treatment are each the recipients of $25,000 Michigan Memorial Phoenix Project (MMPP) seed grants. Seed grants allow researchers exploring peaceful applications of nuclear energy to better define research that appears promising for funding by an outside source.

The University of Michigan Regents resolved in 1948 that: “…the University of Michigan create a War Memorial Center to explore the ways and means by which the potentialities of atomic energy may become a beneficent influence in the life of man, to be known as the Phoenix Project of the University of Michigan.”

To this end, the Advisory Board of MMPP administers a seed-funding program for research groups developing proposals for external support. MMPP Seed Funding guidelines are:

The University of Michigan Regents resolved in 1948 that: “…the University of Michigan create a War Memorial Center to explore the ways and means by which the potentialities of atomic energy may become a beneficent influence in the life of man, to be known as the Phoenix Project of the University of Michigan.”

To this end, the Advisory Board of MMPP administers a seed-funding program for research groups developing proposals for external support. MMPP Seed Funding guidelines are:

Is nuclear energy “sustainable”? Certainly it’s not categorized as such in any federal definition of the term. Nuclear power is not ballyhooed in pro-renewable montages of solar panels and wind turbines. The nuclear industry receives none of the tax incentives renewables do. But the argument for nuclear energy as an important part of any large-scale sustainable energy plan is a powerful one, and an urgent one to explore as climate change becomes an ever more pressing reality.